A Drunken Stupor
by Twilit Phoenix
Summary: He was so good at rejecting her feelings, and alcohol was so good at making her forget that fact. But Karin isn't the only one at the bar who wants to stop thinking about Uchiha Sasuke. Oneshot.


This is the first fanfic I've written for Naruto... and it's a really short one shot at that. :(

My sisters and I wondered why everyone keeps thinking that Sakura and Karin would be bitter enemies. Why wouldn't they like each other? They have so much in common! well... kinda...

I don't own Naruto...

Enjoy :)

* * *

The bar was mostly empty save for a few young men at a table and an older man alone in a booth by the door. She sat alone, her hand wrapped around her drink, staring into it. A cluster of glasses stood empty where she had pushed them away as she finished them. Pushing the black rimmed glasses higher on her nose after they had slipped for the umpteenth time that day, the redhead sighed. She picked up the glass and downed it in a quick gulp. Slamming it onto the counter, she called for another; it slid into her hand. The bartender gave her a once over glance until she stared him down. She was in no mood to flirt; in fact, she did not even want to think about men at the moment. Especially one man in particular, her teammate, Sasuke.

Karin played with the full glass of alcohol in front of her. The three boys of the team Sasuke had put together were in the forest doing whatever Sasuke had them doing. She should have been with them, but she could care less about it now. Karin scowled and clenched her fist around her drink. _I'm thinking about him again! No, I want to stop thinking about him for just a little while_.

Her red eyes had a slightly glazed look to them as she glanced down to the liquid in her glass again. Shedidn't want to think about how she had sent Jugo and that idiot Suigetsu off in another direction while she followed after Sasuke_. Did that guy know how ridiculously good looking he was?_ Karin felt a drunken smile tug at the corners of her lips. _I'm thinking about him again!_ She downed the drink and called for another. The empty glass clinked against the others, bringing her total to six. She had no idea what she had ordered, but whatever it was, it was strong and she felt better than before. _Maybe better enough to think about Sasuke. _The smile returned with more force and her cheeks took on a slight tint of red that had nothing to do with the amount of alcohol she had consumed. _I just can't stop thinking about him._

Karin had once again told Sasuke that they should get away from the others while walking so close to him that he had informed her she was too close. He had been ignoring her statements so she had made her move. What her move had been, she could not even remember. _The beauty of being drunk_, Karin smiled. _Troubles just float away._ She finished off the drink in her hand and closed her red eyes. Without her prompting, another full glass found its way into her hand, a bigger glass this time. She didn't think about it. She could only remember practically throwing her money at the bartender before she started, but how much she had given him was beyond her. She smiled broader when she realized he would keep giving her drinks until she had used up the money. _This could take awhile._ She sipped at the new drink as more patrons entered the bar.

At first Karin gave them none of her fading attention. It was just more men. The noise increased as they ordered their drinks. A few of the men wolf-whistled; Karin hoped for their sakes it wasn't at her. She had dropped the simple cloak that each of their group had been traveling under in the forest when she went after Sasuke, so her strange, revealing clothing was most likely the center of their still sober attention. She laughed to herself that it didn't seem to have that desired effect on Sasuke. _Stop it; stop thinking about him. _She took another sip of her drink and tapped her finger against the glass. It was almost empty, again.

Someone plopped down two bar stools to Karin's right. Karin drank the last of her glass. Ragged breathing and sniffling drew her attention. Karin gave the stranger a quick glance before doing a double take. The girl's hair was pink. That alone would make anyone look twice. _And I thought I had a bright hair color. _The pink haired girl brushed away a few stray tears and then let her face fall onto the bar top and sobbed, her body shaking as her arms surrounded her head, muffling her sobs.

Karin waved the bartender over and motioned for two more drinks. The man shrugged and pushed two small glasses her way. _It must be the alcohol that's making me do this._ _Or maybe it's because this is what I looked like when I found myself in here at first._ Karin slid one of the glasses in front of the crying girl.

"Nice hair," Karin heard her voice say. The girl looked up and met Karin's red eyes with bright green ones. The pink haired girl's face was stained with tears and she needed to blow her nose really bad. Karin pushed the thought aside and raised her glass. The girl saw the second glass and mimicked her.

"To men… who needs them," Karin toasted with a drunken grin. She tipped the glass and swallowed the liquid in a single gulp. It burned her throat. It was stronger than the stuff she had already been drinking. She saw the girl make a face as she swallowed, but no new tears had left her eyes. Karin hiccupped; she was about to call for another drink when the girl beat her to it.

"Two more," the girl called out as she placed some crumpled bills on the counter. The man took them without ceremony and passed two more drinks the girls' way. Karin was not about to complain, she wanted to avoid finding Sasuke again for at least a few more hours. _And the thoughts of him begin again._

The two girls drank in silence for another glass until the pink haired girl turned to Karin, her green eyes were already becoming unfocused. Karin felt herself laugh, a hiccup following it. This girl definitely did not drink as much as she did. Only two drinks into it and the girl already looked like she did. Karin glanced at her cluster of empty glasses and wondered briefly why the bartender had not taken them. Finishing her drink, the pink haired girl blinked, and stared at her hands around the tall glass.

"I hate this," the girl mumbled. She said something else, but her words were garbled and Karin didn't catch most of them.

"Then you need another drink," Karin laughed. She had no idea what was so funny. It must just be the girl. Seeing anyone with bright green eyes and bubblegum pink hair just must be funny enough to make her laugh. The girl nodded. She put enough money for a few more drinks on the counter, paused, and then added another lump to double to pile.

.

After another drink on her part, Karin found the pink haired girl sitting next to her, instead of two stools over. The girl had managed to drink her way through a handful of different drinks and was smiling stupidly at the redhead. Karin had learned her name was Sakura. _How fitting_, she thought to herself,_ it would explain the hair color_,_ I wonder how she got the dye to be so perfect?_ In turn she had told Sakura her name. _The girl would never remember it anyway; she'd be out like a light tonight and then have a killer hangover tomorrow. _She had listened as Sakura told her she had run off from her two teammates so they wouldn't see her cry and found herself here. Karin learned that one of Sakura's companions had said too much about something, _Sakura wasn't speaking clearly at that point and Karin wasn't that into her story to ask her to clarify, _and his words had upset her enough to bring her to uncontrollable tears. Tears the redhead was glad had dried up after her first drink.

Sakura laughed again and leaned with her back against the counter as she spun on her bar stool. Karin let a stupid grin fill her own face as she watched.

"Your hair is _really_ red," Sakura grinned.

"And yours is really pink," Karin smiled, "I like it."

"And I _love_ your hair," Sakura nodded, "I had long hair once too, it was nice."

"But I love your hair more," Karin pouted.

"No, your's is so much nicer," Sakura insisted.

"But your hair is pink!" Karin exclaimed. She would have laughed at herself had she been sober. _I'm arguing over who has better hair._ She giggled and turned back to her companion. Sakura's smile suddenly faded. A lengthy pause filled the space between them.

"Why can guys be so dense?" asked Sakura suddenly. She had stopped spinning and was staring at Karin. The redhead shrugged her shoulders and looked to her glass. _Wow, that was a change in subject, hair color to men._

"I mean why *hiccup* doesn't he care about me?" Sakura asked. Tears were filling her eyes again. Karin dropped her head. _I got her a drink so she'd stop crying; don't start crying again._

"Doesn't he see that he's hurting me?" Sakura asked. Karin glanced around the room. None of the other members of the room seemed to be sober enough to care that a pink haired girl was breaking down at the bar. _I wonder if she's even old enough to drink?_ Karin didn't dwell on it and awkwardly patted her back. She took another sip of her drink and felt a flush rise on her cheeks.

"Just so you know, you're not the only one who got dumped," Karin stated, she lifted her head and her glasses reflected the light in a moment's blinding shine. Her face felt hot as she thought of Sasuke. _Stop thinking about him! Think about something else!_ But her mind was in no state to sift through appropriate thoughts at the moment.

"Oh no," Sakura finally answered after a moment, as if she had just realized what Karin had said. Karin felt herself pulled from her thoughts at the girl's words, but not before several images of Sasuke had flipped through her mind, each with less clothing then the previous one.

"But I don't need him," Karin defiantly stated. _The alcohol was finally catching up to her._ She knew she'd be just as obsessed over him in the morning when she'd slept off her drinks, but it was nice to rant about him_._ "I don't want him to tell me what to do, he's not in charge of me!"

"And I hate how he thinks he's better and smarter than everyone else," Sakura added. Karin figured the pink haired girl had joined her rant, adding qualities about her own boyfriend, or crush. Little did either girl know that they were describing the same boy.

"And he wouldn't talk to me, he's always silent," Karin huffed, "he only talks when he needs my help, which is almost never."

"And he thinks his goal is more important than the team and his friends and me," Sakura scowled. Her grip tightened on her drink.

"I hate him!" Karin shouted. She giddily swallowed the last mouthful in her glass. Sakura did the same. Then they both shouted out.

"I hate _Uchiha Sasuke_!"

…

…

…

"You know Sasuke?" Each girl asked the other in surprise. They both nodded in response to their own question. And then, instead of all hell breaking loose, the two girls turned to each other, their faces lit up with bright grins, and laughed.

"Isn't he awful?" asked Sakura between hiccups, "he was my teammate and he never talked to me other than to tell me I was doing something wrong."

"He's my teammate now and he only talks to me to find out if there are any ninja in the area," Karin laughed. _Who knew it could be so nice to complain about the guy of your dreams? It didn't matter that this girl was in love with him as well, she was drunk and she was having fun. And best of all, thinking about Sasuke was the best way _not_ to think about Sasuke.__

* * *

_

He was going to kill her, unless Suigetsu beat him to it. His water loving teammate scanned the market in search of Karin; his pointed teeth showing under his lips as he frowned. She had been missing for a few hours now. They had finished searching the forest and he was ready to leave the area in search of his brother. Jugo walked silently behind them. Sasuke paused and turned to a small bar. A drunken man stumbled out. Through the entryway, the Uchiha saw a flash of red hair and heard her familiar voice.

"She's there," Sasuke pointed without looking. Suigetsu frowned and strode over to the bar and disappeared inside. Sasuke and Jugo followed. When they walked in, they were greeted by something they thought they would never witness. Karin was dancing around the bar, her arm locked with a pink haired girl's, singing, at the top of her lungs.

It wasn't the song that made him pause, though he did catch the chorus of 'Sasuke is such a jerk' set to what he thought he remembered was the melody to 'Mary had a little lamb'; it was the fact that it was Sakura who was equally singing and skipping with Karin. If he hadn't been Sasuke, he would have let his jaw drop open like Suigetsu's. Jugo had a confused grin on his face as he watched the two girls.

The two girls both giggled and hiccupped as they drunkenly danced through the bar. Some of the other patrons laughed with them, singing out phrases to the song when they remembered them through their own stupor.

"What is she…?" Suigetsu seemed at a loss for words as he watched Karin and the pink haired ninja collapse into an empty booth by the windows where two nearly finished glasses waited. They put their heads together and giggled uncontrollably.

"She's drunk," came Sasuke's un-amused reply. He wondered to himself what had brought them together as he watched them act like best friends, drunken best friends. Suigetsu's shoulders rolled forward as he tried to keep his laughter contained.

Jugo and Suigetsu followed Sasuke as he walked through the bar to the where the two girls sat. Before he got there, Sakura seemed to notice that they needed a refill and smiled. She jumped up from her seat next to Karin and skipped across the room, right in front of Sasuke, to the counter. Sasuke noticed Karin finishing off the rest of her glass and look around. The blush on her face matched her hair as she sat alone in the booth, grinning.

Sasuke slid into the booth across from his teammate, his never vanishing frown still on his face. Jugo sat next to Sasuke so Suigetsu had no choice but to slide in next to Karin.

"Karin," Sasuke said. The girl looked to him, her red eyes glazed and unfocused. _When did they get here? Where's Sakura?_

"Whaaat doyou want Sasukeee?" Karin asked, her speech slightly slurred. Suigetsu watched her as she looked to each one of them. When Karin turned to him and he saw no disgust on her face, he laughed again. Karin smiled and giggled with him, even though nothing was funny.

"She's trashed," Suigetsu stated. Sasuke closed his eyes, leaned his elbows against the table, and folded his hands under his chin. They all heard someone humming the melody of the song to which had greeted them when they arrived. The pink haired girl giggled happily as she set down the two drinks she had been carrying and scooted into the booth next to Suigetsu. The boy awkwardly moved closer to Karin to give the pink haired girl room so she wasn't practically sitting on top of him. Sakura looked to Jugo and saw Sasuke.

"Why are you here?" Sakura asked as she leaned over the table slightly to try and see Sasuke better. Her green eyes flicked across his face. "I don't _want_ you here, i _don't_ like you. _Your_ mean. You _left_ me on a _bench_ two years ago, i could have _died_." Her words weren't slurred, but they held far too much emphasis in the wrong places. She was as drunk as Karin.

Sakura leaned over Suigetsu as though he wasn't even there and laughed to herself as she put her hand to her mouth in a childlike gesture of telling a secret. Karin leaned closer to hear her. Suigetsu pressed himself against the back of the bench seat he was on, looking between the two girls as they giggled and whispered across his lap. The boy was clearly shocked. The two girls pulled away from each other and stared directly, or as directly as they could, at Sasuke. Sakura was giggling like she used to, when she had been the little girl Sasuke remembered from the academy.

"Me and Sakura have decided that you are a total jerk," Karin stated as she nodded her head to herself. _Being drunk has done _wonders _to my vocabulary._ She would have rolled her eyes, but the action was beyond her in her current state.

Sasuke was surprised. They each knew that the other knew him? This could have ended in so many different ways. They could have pulled out each other's hair or killed each other to defend what they thought was their love for him. Instead they had become best friends. What were the odds? Sasuke was not sure if he liked this outcome.

"So you don't like Sasuke anymore?" asked Suigetsu, surprise laced in his question. Jugo cringed as Karin punched him. Sakura laughed as Suigetsu's face seemed to melt and then reform.

"No, I don't," Karin nodded, "I don't want to think about him."

"Then why'd you punch me!" Suigetsu shouted. His white teeth flashed in the light from the window.

"Because I _hate_ you," Karin scowled with sudden seriousness. Even with her say in the matter said, she was content to let him sit next to her on the crowded booth bench. Soon her scowl faded once again to a smile. Sakura leaned towards Karin again and the two girls were for the second time leaning over the ninja trapped between them whispering to each other. Karin hiccupped and joined in with Sakura's giggles.

"She never gets this wasted," Suigetsu said to Sasuke, "she never drinks this much when she goes out."

"She's usually alone," Jugo added. He looked to the table where his hands were and said no more. Sasuke still found it hard to believe that Sakura had been the reason that Karin had overdone herself. He didn't think Sakura had ever gone to a bar before.

"Can we keep her?" asked Suigetsu like a kid begging for a puppy. The ninja looked almost relaxed as the two girls leaned over him. Sasuke and Jugo stared at him. The whispering stopped and Karin sipped at the clear liquid in her glass. She knew she'd have to stop soon now that the boys were back, but she had been having so much fun.

Sakura blinked her eyes open and closed slowly. She hiccupped and then yawned; all those drinks were catching up to her. Leaning against the back of the booth, she was ready to go to sleep. She finally found a place to rest her head without craning her neck and sighed happily. It did not matter to her at the moment that that place was Suigetsu's shoulder.

"See Sasuke," Suigetsu grinned, "she's so cute." He ruffled Sakura's pink hair as she smiled. Her eyes were closed, but she was still awake. "Anyone who can make Karin act like this," the boy avoided Karin's half hearted punch that was wildly off target anyway, "should come with us."

"No," Sasuke stated without a pause. Suigetsu frowned and tried again.

"Please?" he smiled.

"No," Sasuke said. He closed his eyes and leaned his chin on his hands again, "we don't need any more distractions."

"What about a trade?" asked Suigetsu, "her for Karin. We can take her and leave Karin here."

"Karin is useful," Sasuke frowned.

"But she's more fun," Suigetsu smiled.

"No," Sasuke stated. He glared at Suigetsu and the shark-toothed ninja dropped his argument with a frown.

Sasuke wondered what Sakura was doing here anyway. He said they could not be bothered by distractions, but one question could save his team some time getting out once they needed to leave.

"Sakura," Sasuke stated. The ninja opened her eyes and looked at him. A happy drunken smile was still plastered on her face, the flush on her cheeks still bright. She no longer looked at him like he was the Sasuke she had loved, and obviously still did, or the Sasuke she had just recently decided was a jerk. She was looking at him like he was just another person who knew her name but she did not recognize.

"Is Naruto here?" Sasuke asked. There was no doubt in his mind that she had been on a mission with the loudmouthed blond ninja. He needed to know where Naruto was so that his team could leave without confronting him; he did not need to be delayed anymore now that they would have to wait for Karin to sleep off all the alcohol she had consumed.

"He's in the forest to the south of the town with Sai," Sakura said through another yawn. She snuggled into Suigetsu's shoulder. Sasuke noticed Karin was drifting off as well, her head bobbing as she tried to stay awake.

"Why are they here?" asked Sasuke. He knew the answer; he just wanted to hear her say it.

"Looking for," she yawned again, her green eyes closing as she drifted to sleep, "Sasuke." Sasuke nodded.

"Let's go," he announced to the table, "Suigetsu, help Karin."

"Why me?" the ninja complained, "and what about her?" Sakura was sleeping on his shoulder, sandwiching him into the booth. Her untouched drink was still on the table.

"She stays here," Sasuke said, "her teammates will find her." He wondered why Naruto had not already begun searching for her.

"But she'll be all alone," Suigetsu stated.

"You were fine with leaving Karin," Jugo spoke.

"But she's Karin," Suigetsu replied, as if those words were the answer to everything.

"She stays," Sasuke repeated. With Jugo's help holding Sakura, Suigetsu pulled Karin out of the booth and helped her out of the bar. Jugo placed Sakura so she leaned against the window and followed Sasuke out. He turned back to make sure she was ok as he left the room, feeling sorry that they were leaving her alone while she slept.

Sasuke led them away from the town and away from the forest that Sakura had said Naruto was in. Karin was sleeping on her feet and Suigetsu gave her a mildly disgusted look as she leaned on him. Jugo took the hint and lifted her off her feet. Sasuke felt what he thought was Naruto, enter the town. The Uchiha turned away and led Jugo and Suigetsu toward where he knew he'd find his brother.

* * *

The full 'Sasuke is a Jerk' Song (set to the tune of Mary had a Little Lamb)

_Sasuke is such a jerk_

_Such a jerk_

_Such a jerk_

_Sasuke is the biggest jerk_

_That the world has ever known! _

Yeah… I had had to get the whole thing out in one place. So the ending was more serious then I'd originally thought of, but I have this problem with ending stories. This was supposed to be almost solely about Karin and Sakura but I love Suigetsu, so I couldn't stop.

I also know next to nothing about being drunk and drinking, so if things are off, oh well *shrugs shoulders* I don't care.

Reviews make me happy :)


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